Routine spaghetti western. An ok way to kill some time, but not memorable in any aspect. In my opinion it lacked the cinematic energy of other examplesof the genre. The main character felt very cardboard like. I mean, he just killed the man who murdered his brother and all he cares about is that his telescope is wasted in the process. ??? The villains didn’t stand out much either. Overall, just an ok movie.

An ordinary SW, made by a not so inspired director, who tries hard to copy Leone, but has not the talent to do so. You will recognise many familiar faces and locations from Leone’s Dollar trilogy.
The basic plot idea is interesting and also very typical for a SW.

The first film of Tonino Valerii, director of Day of Anger (1967) and My Name is Nobody (1974). Vallerii, who worked for Leone on both A Fistful of Dollars and For a few Dollars More, was recommended for the job by Leone himself. It is also sometimes said that Leone came up with the original idea for the movie – a bounty hunter who doesn’t chase outlaws but follows money transports, knowing that outlaws inevitably will turn up - but I couldn’t find conformation of this. However, stylistically the film is deeply indebted to Leone’s first two Dollar movies.

Lanky Fellows (Hill) watches an assault on a money transport from a distance, but doesn’t take action when all soldiers escorting the money are killed. The leader of the bandits (Sancho) departs with two of his men to put the money in a save place, and sends the rest of his gang to the town, in the uniforms of the soldiers they have just killed. Lanky starts to stalk Sancho and …

first half houer felt like a slapstick movie the bandits
i had to laugh about them how they act and how they do the boss doesn t look scary or bad at all and his mustache i swear it could fell anytome off his face
and the town self if you pushed against the house it fell over man it looked like blazing saddles
but then the next hour things improved violence and a lot of familair faces
the old man that want his gold and looking in a mirror from a roof to see the hings same man as in for a few dollars when eastwood ask the old timer about mortimer and he s talking about trains that godamn trains
the bank directeur also played the badguy in sabbata as stingel who get shot in the end
the other man who s helping out in the shoot out played the man that get shot by nino in the begining of for a few dollars more after betraying nino
and some other familair faces at well
great shootout in the end really liked it

I watched it this one today for the first time. Despite some bad opinions relating to Valerii talent, I personally like most of its work.

Being its first SW I wasn´t expecting some kind of cult movie, and of course now that I see it, I personally consider it not as good as “Day of anger” (my Valerii’s favorite), but unquestionably its quality it’s above genre average.

The locations were well chosen, and the acting was fine too. Personally liked the stupid smile that Hank Fellows puts on his face every time he points a target, taste for killing, right?

I watched the Impulso Records release and must say that the image is great, nevertheless I suspect this version was cut.

A shame, in a way, that it doesn’t keep faith in its seemingly ultra-cynical protagonist right till the end - they had to shoehorn a half-hearted revenge element in there to give Hill’s character added motivation in his pursuit of George Martin.

Nevertheless, a textbook example of the genre from its middle period. And the image of Lanky perched atop a hill with his rifle inspired one of my favourite Italian Western posters.

[quote=“Starblack, post:9, topic:589”]A shame, in a way, that it doesn’t keep faith in its seemingly ultra-cynical protagonist right till the end - they had to shoehorn a half-hearted revenge element in there to give Hill’s character added motivation in his pursuit of George Martin.

Nevertheless, a textbook example of the genre from its middle period. And the image of Lanky perched atop a hill with his rifle inspired one of my favourite Italian Western posters.[/quote]
Agreed. The killed my brother aspect was thrown in seemingly last minute. Isn’t greed for money enough motivation? I enjoyed Hill’s more than usual laid back character. The telegraph explosion scene was notable for me. The gold bricks was a creative angle as well.

Craig Hill does a great job playing ‘Lanky’ Fellows, a bounty killer who follows gold shipments waiting for them to get robbed so he can go to work. a banker and a mine owner offer him a chance to double his money by insuring a gold shipment and he jumps at the opportunity. There are some really nice subtle touches in this that made this even more enjoyable for me. The fact that Lanky can only read dollar figures, the twin bartenders who roll down the bottle protection before trouble starts. The little old guy watching all the goings-on in his mirror is a nice touch, as well as Mingo looking like he just walked off the set of Ghengis Khan. The final shootout when Lanky ‘Hathcocks’ Kennebeck through the scope is aweswome, as well as the final scene where our hero is scoping out another robbery. And it’s probably just me, but the scene where Fernando and his buddies take their horses into the hideout with them, and then walk out with them in the morning amused me for some reason.

This actually has less twists and turns than i have come to expect when a large gold shipment is involved, but i think it works to it’s advantage in this one. All in all, an enjoyable and recommended SW from the early cycle.

was not impressed with this one. boring to me. another disapointing SW featuring Craig Hill, haven’t seen any really interesting ones with him in. Haven’t got much more to say about this film, it’s not the worst of the genre granted but extremly ordinary and forgettable.perhaps it didn’t help, watching it straight after the England- U.S.A game! ???

I will not say I’m disappointed.
But somehow I’m not impressed.
The film starts very well.
With the described cat and mouse game. Hil hunts Sancho. Very good.

But as the story shifts to the city, there is too much talk.
To the cast of Martin. I can do with this man in a SW nothing. This is very strange, he looks like a Mexican. He leads a gang of Mexicans. But his name is Gus Kennebeck. Oh yes, a typical Mexican name. And his brother is also a American.

Then his wife or girlfriend. Why she lives in town with his son ?

There are some non-essential subplots. As the love story between Molly and a band member. This is for the story does not really matter.

The film is certainly not bad. But it is certainly not Valerii best film.
My Rating 5 maybe 6 of 10

This movie looks like the patch of two completely different movies. They had some nice ideas at the start, but then they probably realized they only have about half hour of material, and then just said, OK for the rest of the movie let’s rework that Yojimbo story again (for how many movies actually it was used?).

Valerii is Leone copycat, and as such can make couple of memorable scenes. Craig Hill in lead role is uninteresting. Nico Fidenco’s score is fine, ads to suspense when Fellows is stoking the bandits, main theme similar to FoD and FaFDM.
Watched it with bad English dub.

Just to flag up that the Movies4Men channel in the UK has picked this film up (along with numerous other spaghetti westerns) and it is next showing on Monday 18 May at 17.30. I have never seen it in English, only Italian, so am looking forward to it, though I agree it’s a very routine example of the genre.

I rewatched it recently, and hey, it is better than I remembered it in all departments. I even liked some aspects of Valerii’s directing, and this is probably his best directed film (not including Leone’s MNIN of course).
A solid and entertaining Spag with some good scenes and especially a good final. I raise my rating from 5 to 6/10.

But one should cut out the first 3 min. A cheesy song and some senseless shots of our hero on horse in front of a very kitschy sundown background. And it is not the title sequence, which follows thereafter.